Lessons and realizations from Colombia and Pablo Escobar

THOSE who still don’t understand the enormity of the illegal drug problem worldwide and its devastating effect on society had better watch any of the slew of films and television series about Colombian drug lord, Pablo Escobar. It will be enlightening and will make one realize how lucky Filipinos are that the current administration finally addressed the festering drug problem.

I highly recommended the Netflix series “Narcos,” which traces the rise of Escobar into the world’s richest and most powerful drug lord with a personal net worth of $30 billion in the early 1990s, shows his murderous reign over the cocaine business, his corrupting influence and forays into terrorism, and finally his death in a shoot-out with Colombian police, on a rooftop in his hometown of Medellin.

“Narcos” is an enjoyable, fastpaced, and slick production. You’ll get a good overview of the world of drug kingpins, see how cocaine (from the coca plant) is produced in laboratories in the jungles, and the ingenious ways it is distributed worldwide. One also comes to the realization that it is the huge demand from its biggest market, the addicts in the United States, that is keeping this business growing until now.

As a US production, “Narcos” naturally takes the American point of view and it even has first-person narration from US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agent Stephen Murphy (played by actor Boyd Holbrook). There is a real agent Murphy, actually, and he in his red shirt even had a picture taken in front of the dead Escobar.

As one critic put it, “Narcos” portrays the gringos as the good guys while the Colombians are pictured as caricatures of criminals in the drug world. Notwithstanding this, the series stands on its own with the solid acting of its stars (in particular, Wagner Moura in his multi-layered portrayal of Escobar) and its wellchosen storylines are most apt for a limited series.

But if one wants to have an uncanny experience, one should also watch the Colombian telenovela, “Pablo Escobar: El Patron del Mal,” which is also available on Netflix. More than “Narcos,” this Colombian series will vividly show the similarities between the Latin American nation and the Philippines, notably in the culture, religion, the moralism, the language, including the cuss words, and even the flora in the background.

It was uncanny seeing scenes in typical Colombian homes and slum areas that are almost perfect matches for those in the Philippines, down to the labyrinthine streets and GI sheets on roofs. Inside, one can almost see a local home with the garish plastic covers on kitchen tables, the iron rails on windows, the pictures on the wall of Jesus Christ with the Sacred Heart, along with amulets and other religious items.

Both Colombia and the Philippines were colonized by Spain and majority of the two countries’ population is still Roman Catholic. In “El Patron del Mal,” Escobar’s mother, Hermilda Gaviria is portrayed as an extremely religious individual – a devotee of the Holy Infant of Atocha (our version is called the Santo Nino) – who is always being asked by the Escobar sicarios (hitmen) to be given her blessing.

This Colombian series was produced by Caracol TV and like “Narcos” is based on real events and characters, and interspersed with the dramatized scenes are real-life footage such as the assassination of popular presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan, who had promised to go after drug lords. However, it is unclear why the series had to change the names of some of the characters, especially when many of them are already dead and can’t pose any legal risk to the TV producers.

Unlike the Narcos series, this telenovela features over-the-top acting, overly emotional scenes including unnecessary ones featuring some pretty actresses, and major nagging from Escobar’s wife and mother. It was also too long, 74 episodes, that I found myself using the fast-forward button too many times.

Despite this, I will recommend this series to fellow Filipinos for the unsettling manner that it mirrors our current lives and political dilemmas. In the Colombian experience, we will see how we barely escaped becoming a narco-state, as the corruption engendered by the narcotics business became widespread that even the police or justice officials could not be trusted.

Locally we have the case where the former justice secretary, Leila de Lima, is accused of being a protector of drug lords. During her term at the Justice Department, the shabu business grew exponentially with most of it reportedly being overseen from the New Bilibid Prison where several Filipino drug lords were detained.

Similarly in Colombia, Escobar while jailed at the La Catedral Prison still managed to preside over his multi-billion-dollar cocaine empire; was still able to murder people, and order bombings. He also turned his prison into a hotel-resort, similar to what drug lords in Bilibid did, with his nice spacious room, good food with a personal chef, a gaming room and other entertainment, including regular visits from prostitutes.

In the Bilibid Prison during the time of De Lima, shabu drug lords also enjoyed great accommodations and they even had shower, sauna, a swimming pool, and one even had his own recording studio. When the Duterte government came in, they put a stop to this and discovered as well among the inmates firearms, shabu paraphernalia, cell phones and other communications equipment, appliances, and sex toys.

Still our own drug lords will never become billionaires like Escobar. Shabu is a poor man’s cocaine and its market is mostly the lower classes. Cocaine is more expensive and yields better returns to its producers and distributors like the Colombian drug cartels. However, the synthetic drug shabu (crystal meth) is more destructive physically; its effects on the nerves and the brain are devastating, and often irreversible.